Open ended ratchet wrenches are disclosed in the United States Patents to Brockway, Nos. 923,942; Ford, 2,719,447; Jires, 2,353,901; Greer et al., 2,508,604; Fish, 2,787,180; Borries, 3,535,960; Borries, 3,604,106; Batton, 3,620,105; Dorma, 3,979,977.
All of the aforementioned references with the exception of the Ford patent, describe open ended ratchet wrenches in which the jaws of the wrench rotate in a frame having an opening corresponding to the width of the jaws and in which the wrench can only be removed from the nut when the jaws are aligned with the opening after a tightening or untightening operation. The Ford wrench describes a device in which the jaws are always returned to a position in which they are aligned with the opening in the frame after being rotated a fraction of a turn to apply a tightening or untightening force to a nut or other object in the jaws. The difficulty with the device of the Ford reference is that the frame is excessively large and the jaws are arranged to grip a nut or other workpiece at a corner thereof such as the intersection of two faces of a hexagonal nut. The jaws in this respect do not grip the nut along the entire flat surface of opposite hexagonal faces or opposite faces of other similar type nuts. As a result, with the rather small area of engagement between the jaws and the corner of the nut, the tightening force or moment of force that can be applied to the nut by this device is minimal, lest the jaws damage the nut and/or slip off of the nut.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to overcome these and other difficulties encountered in the prior art.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide an open ended wrench for applying a moment of force to a nut or other work piece through a pair of jaws when a moment of force is applied to said wrench in one direction and whereby each of the jaws are opened when the wrench is moved in another direction without removing the wrench from the workpiece or the nut.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a wrench of the foregoing description which may be used on nuts or work pieces of varying sizes, the jaws of such wrench being adjustable to accommodate such nuts or workpieces.
These and other objects have been achieved according to the present invention which will be understood more completely by reference to the appended claims, and drawings as well as the following disclosure.